Antec Notebook Cooler 200 Review

Antec have taken a big boy 200mm fan and attached it to a notebook stand, will it cool a notebook successfully?

Product on Review: Antec Notebook Cooler 200
Manufacturer: Antec
Price: £51.93 (At time of review)

Technology moves fast, and this is especially so with computer hardware. We have seen the super fast processors, memory and graphics move from desktop to notebook in a short space of time and this has meant that cooling manufacturers have had to develop new innovations to counter the excessive heat that these notebooks produce.

It’s quite simple; components inside a notebook are very tightly seated together and because of this they generate heat quicker than the conventional computer would. This reaction can cause system lock-ups, crashes and even hardware failure. The faster the hardware the more heat generated, so gaming notebooks in particular will list highly as a victim of such weaknesses.

To combat this, Antec have developed the Notebook Cooler 200 which utilizes a huge Antec Big Boy 200mm LED fan.

Antec have the following to say about the Notebook Cooler 200:

“Today’s premium notebooks can play many of the most demanding games but that performance comes at a great cost: most notebooks provide inadequate cooling, and run a huge danger of overheating. Antec’s Notebook Cooler 200 offers gamers the perfect solution, a robust and stylish cooler for even the most cutting-edge notebook.”

Features

• 200mm Antec Big Boy fan with two speed settings delivers maximum cooling
• Powered by a USB connector – no batteries or power adapters!
• Internal blue LED illumination delivers unbeatable style and can be toggled on or off through a convenient switch
• Unique design enables effortless operation on either a flat surface or the user’s lap
• Unit Dimensions:
• 0.9” (H) x 13” (W) x 11.2” (D)
• 2.2 cm (H) x 33 cm (W) x 28.4 cm (D)
• Package dimensions:
• 2.1″ (H) x 14.8″ (W) x 12.9″ (D)
• 5.4cm(H) x 38cm(W) x 33cm(D)
• Weight: 1.6 lbs / 0.7 kg

Notebook Cooler 200

The Antec Notebook Cooler 200 comes in a pleasant box, a rather large image of the cooler itself is impressed onto the front giving you an insight into how the cooler looks. The box actually has a handle, you may question why this is the case when its actually only a box to keep the cooler intact after purchase and most people only chuck away the boxes after something is bought anyway, right? Well the Notebook Cooler 200 isn’t very portable (as we will see later) so keeping this box might be a smart idea. Inside the box is an instructions sheet which is fairly simple to understand, place the notebook onto the top side, plug the USB cable into the notebook and alter the switches as desired.

The first thing apparent to anyone who sees the Notebook Cooler 200 is the huge 200mm Antec Big Boy fan. This has been dropped into the middle of the stand, and by the looks of it will be a worthy solution for keeping a laptop from getting toasty.

The Notebook Cooler 200 is produced using mostly plastics, the mesh grill concealing the fan is made of metal and the complete structure feels generally very firm and decent quality. It should provide a nice base for even the heaviest of notebooks. There are 4 mirrored for placing your notebook onto. Visually, this cooler looks the business. It’s attractive and with the LED lights on will add a nice glow to a usually dull office desk. True as it may seem, this cooler is only really ideal for placement on a desk as it won’t fit nicely on the lap. The notebook is also more secure when on the desk with the Notebook Cooler 200.

Taking a look from the side, the frame is actually fixed so there is no way to adjust the angle of the Notebook Cooler 200. Nevertheless the angle at which it has been designed is complimentary to someone who uses their notebook regular.

Moving onto the back of the Notebook Cooler 200 there is a panel that allows you to control the fan speeds of the big boy 200mm and manage the lighting system. To power the cooler a USB cable has fitted directly into the Antec cooler, this must be plugged into a spare USB socket on your notebook. There are two fan speeds to choose from:

Low – 400RPM (23.8 dBA)
High – 600RPM (27.1 dBA)

In the next section we will see how effective the cooling from this mammoth 200mm fan is and how quiet those two settings above are.

Performance

To test the effectiveness of the cooling on our Antec Notebook Cooler 200 I decided that even though the low and high fan settings are 200RPM apart it would be good to see if there are any recognizable differences. So I took a notebook and read the temperatures of the CPU in idle without the cooler on, with it at low (400RPM) and then at high (600RPM). The CPU temperatures are then monitored in exactly the same way but with the system being fully loaded for over 30 minutes using OCCT (Temperatures obtained via OCCT also).

Dell Latitude D630
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz
Memory 2GB DDR2
HDD 60GB SATA-II
Screen 14.1″

The Antec Notebook Cooler 200 shows some great signs of being a capable cooling solution for the sizzly notebook at full load. It shaves off some important degrees and while doing so remains quiet at both low and high settings. The difference between the two modes on both temperature and sound performance aren’t that big, so I think Antec could have perhaps made the ‘high’ setting bigger in RPM we may have seen even better thermal performance, I believe this is doable because the big boy fan is barely audible at 600RPM. It’s no disruption at all, so seeing it at say 800RPM would have been interesting.

Conclusion

Antec have produced a great notebook cooling solution in the Notebook Cooler 200. It serves its purpose by significantly reducing the heat from your beloved notebook and whilst doing so, is quiet and unnoticeable.

The Notebook Cooler 200 isn\\\’t the most portable of all coolers both for transportation and usage because It\\\’s really designed for gamers and those sat at a desk with their notebook, but with this aside – it is barely audible and will prolong the life of your notebook and I therefore award it the Vortez Silver Award.